Thursday, January 11, 2018


Morning by Morning, January 11 - Today, Hear His Voice and Enter His Rest
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Good Shepherd of my soul, help me get quiet as I wait on You to listen for Your leading and begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with Your Holy Spirit.  ...
"Christ, however, was faithful over God's house as a Son, and we are His house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put Me to the test, though they had seen My works for forty years....' Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end" (Hebrews 3:6-14).
According to Your Word, an "evil" heart is an "unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God" (v. 12). And our hearts are "hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (v. 13) and in "rebellion" against the leading of Your "voice" (v. 7-8). So You encourage us to "exhort one another every day" to keep turning our hearts to You, to keep listening for Your voice, to keep believing in You (v. 13).
So, Lord, I ask You to keep my heart sensitive to You, humble before You, hungry for You, available to You, and yielded to You. Let my words be full of grace to exhort others to enter that place of "rest" and faith in You, seeking to lead by example (v. 18). Let the daily rhythm of my personal, intimate relationship with You model my desire--as best as I can and all by the power of Your grace--to "Trust in the Lord with all (my) heart, and lean not on (my) own understanding; (but) in all (my) ways acknowledge Him, (believing He) shall direct (my) paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays







Friend, I pray your heart will be sensitive, humble, hungry, available, and yielded to God and the voice of His Spirit to lead you in the paths of His blessings and rest in Him every day, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friend! 



Friends, I welcome you to join with me in a daily journey of passionate, pursuing prayer through my 365 Day Prayer Devotional, Morning by Morning, Second Edition, for a deeply intimate and personal journey of prayer each day.

www.amazon.com/MorningByMorning-TommyHays
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Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Morning by Morning, January 10 - Implanted Word and Empowering Spirit
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me hear what You're speaking into my spirit to begin my day centered and grounded in You and Your Word--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God.  ...
 
"Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of His own purpose He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of His creatures.... and welcome with meekness the implanted word of that has power to save your souls" (James 1:17-21).
 
Every good and perfect gift comes from You. And two of Your greatest gifts are Your Word and Your Spirit. In Your Word, I'm grounded in truth. In Your Spirit, I'm empowered to live it out in my life.
 
Thank You for the gifts of Your implanted Word and Your empowering Spirit. Let the Word of God be implanted deep within me as I read and meditate upon Your Scripture as the very Word of God and the standard of truth for my life. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). And let the Spirit of God fill my heart to form my thoughts and shape my desires to live out Your Word through the words and actions of my life each day. "For God is working in (me), giving (me) the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13 NLT).
 
Like the two wings of an eagle, let Your Word and Your Spirit lift me and move me, empower me and guide me, in a life that freely and fully soars in Your will. As I embrace the good gifts of Your Word and Your Spirit, You move mightily within me and move mightily for me to align my life with Your good will. "The Lord is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.... He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:28-31). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays




Friend, I pray the implanted Word of God and the empowering Spirit of God would lift you up every day and cause you to soar into the fullness of the good life the Lord has for you in the center of His good will for you, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friend! 



Friends, I welcome you to join with me in a daily journey of passionate, pursuing prayer through my 365 Day Prayer Devotional, Morning by Morning, Second Edition, for a deeply intimate and personal journey of prayer each day.
Morning by Morning at Amazon:

 

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Morning by Morning, January 9 - Pursing the Place of Worship
 
Good morning Lord Jesus. Put Your thoughts in my mind and Your desires in my heart to lead me in the way that leads to life in You today.  ...
 
"You shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you" (Deuteronomy 12:5-7 NKJV).
 
You called the tribes of Israel to seek a place to worship You. You promised that in that place they would know Your name and experience Your Presence. There they would offer their sacrifices and receive Your blessings to rejoice in all that You are and all that You do on their behalf as the people of God.
 
And now, each day, You call us to come to You in the place of worship You've prepared for us here in the holy place of our hearts. Our bodies are Your temple, and our lives are our sacrifice (1 Corinthians 6:19). "By the mercies of God, (we) present (our) bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is (our) spiritual worship" (Romans 12:10).
 
It's here in the place of worship that we offer to You all that we are and all that we have. It's here in the place of worship that we fully acknowledge that You are the Source of every good thing we have in our lives (James 1:17). And it's here in the place of worship that we are forever changed into Your image--moment by moment, face to face, from the inside out, from glory to glory. "All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
 
So here I am to worship. Not just first thing in my morning, here at the beginning of my day, but throughout the moments of my day may I never leave this place of worship--here where deep calls to Deep and where I abide in You as You abide in me (Psalm 42:7; John 15:4). May I continue to pursue You and worship You in spirit and truth--my spirit passionately seeking, humbly honoring, and fully embracing Your Spirit--for "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). Here in this place of worship I'll experience You and receive all You've prepared for me, as I freely and whole-heartedly surrender all that I am and all that I have completely to You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays




Friend, I pray you experience the Presence and blessings of God throughout the moments of your day as You passionately pursue the place of worship He's prepared for you in your heart, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friend!
  

(From a time of deep worship while I was teaching at a spiritual retreat in 
The Philippines several years ago)


Friends, I welcome you to join with me in a daily journey of passionate, pursuing prayer through my 365 Day Prayer Devotional, Morning by Morning, Second Edition, for a deeply intimate and personal journey of prayer each day.


 

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Monday, January 08, 2018

Morning by Morning, January 8 - In Sync in the Spirit
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Lord of the world, be Lord of my life and every moment of my day.  ...
 
"As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.... their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved.... When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When they moved, the others moved; when they stopped, the others stopped; and when they rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels" (Ezekiel 1:15-21).
 
Many have wondered about Ezekiel's wheels--whether they are angelic orbs, inter-dimensional portals, or even alien spacecraft. In any event, it seems to me he was looking with spiritual eyes into the spiritual realm of the heavenly dimension. And one thing that strikes me of what he saw is how everything was in sync with the spirit of one another--if one rose, they all rose; if one went to the side, they all went to the side; if one was still, they all were still. It speaks to me of spiritual harmony and unity, spiritual alignment and movement, spiritual sensitivity and intimacy.
 
When Your Holy Spirit is in our hearts, like "the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels," we move with You and move with one another in sync with the Spirit. With spiritual harmony and unity, with spiritual alignment and movement, with spiritual sensitivity and intimacy, "all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.... When we cry, 'Abba!Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:14-16). 
 
In sync with You and with one another, we are spiritually connected and aligned so that "when (we) turn to the right or when (we) turn to the left, (our) ears shall hear a word behind (us), saying, 'This is the way; walk in it'" (Isaiah 30:21). This an expression of our spiritual sensitivity and response to Your invitation to "lead a life worthy of the calling to which (we) have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3). In this way, we are "one body and one Spirit, just as (we) were called to the one hope of (our) calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6).
 
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill us so we can follow You (Ephesians 5:18). Move in our hearts to align us with You and with one another so that we move in sync with You and with one another. By the power of Your grace at work and alive within us, may we "live in harmony with one another" (Romans 12:16). And "may the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant (us) to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together (we) may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 15:5-6). As we "abide" in You and allow Your Spirit to "abide" in us, "we live and move and have our being" (John 15:4; Acts 17:28). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays




Friend, I pray you are filled afresh every day to be in sync in the Spirit to live and move and have your being in God as He aligns your spirit His Spirit and His body of Christ, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friend!
  


Friends, I welcome you to join with me in a daily journey of passionate, pursuing prayer through my 365 Day Prayer Devotional, Morning by Morning, Second Edition, for a deeply intimate and personal journey of prayer each day.


 

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

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Friday, January 05, 2018

Morning by Morning, January 5 - Experiencing the Presence and the Voice of God
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I speak out Your name and listen for Your voice to begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with Your Holy Spirit.  ...
 
"Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the splendor all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of Someone speaking" (Ezekiel 1:28).
 
You opened Ezekiel's eyes to see with the eyes of heaven. As he tried to describe it with human words of heavenly visions--living creatures and spinning wheels in gleaming amber, shining crystal, and radiant fire--the limitations of language keep us from fully grasping all he was experiencing. But his response to Your revelation was to fall on his face, embraced in glory of Your manifest Presence. And it was there--there in his heart humbled before You and there in the heavenly realm of the glory of God that he could hear Your voice and respond to Your word.
 
You said to him, "O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you" (v. 2:1). And when his body and spirit came to attention to listen and respond to Your voice, "a Spirit entered into (him)" and he was able to hear You speaking to him (v. 2:2). You gave him instruction, encouragement, and guidance for the days ahead and the mission before him (v. 2:3-5). And You even prepared him for what might seem like failure from an earthly perspective, but would be accounted to him as righteousness, obedience, and faith from Your heavenly perspective (v. 2:6-7). Regardless of how others responded to him and the words of spirit and life You would speak through him, "they (would) know that there has been a prophet among them"--they would know they had been in the presence of one who had been in the Presence of God (v. 2:5).
 
I thank You that I have the gift of coming into Your Presence every day--the gift of Your grace for every one of Your children (Hebrews 4:16). Whenever I draw near to You, You draw near to me (James 4:8). I'm one of Your sheep; and You know my name; and I can hear Your voice (John 10:3). I'm a child of God, filled and led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). As I bow down to fall on my face in humility of heart before You, You lift me up to stand firm on my feet as You stand firm within me (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6).
 
I may not necessarily see with open visions into the heavenly realm of living creatures and spinning wheels in gleaming amber, shining crystal, and radiant fire, but I can look with the eyes of my heart and reach out in the yearning of my spirit to encounter my living God every day (Ephesians 1:17-19). According to hope and promise of Your Word, through "Christ Jesus our Lord ... (I) have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in Him" (Ephesians 3:11-12). In the mystery of faith and the power of the grace of God, I can "be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19). 
 
By Your mercy and grace, You remove every barrier between us and purify my heart through the blood of Christ (Colossians 1:20; 1 John 1:9). You promised the blessing of Your Presence for those who seek You--"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:6-8). So every moment of every day I can embrace Your desire and heart for the spiritual intimacy of Your every-abiding Presence with me and within me, as You invite me, "Abide in Me as I abide in you" (John 15:4). Lord, let it be so. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays




Friend, I pray you experience the Presence and the voice of God, as you passionately pursue Him with an ever-increasing spiritual hunger and thirst for Him, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friend!
  


Friends, I welcome you to join with me in a daily journey of passionate, pursuing prayer through my 365 Day Prayer Devotional, Morning by Morning, Second Edition, for a deeply intimate and personal journey of prayer each day.


 

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!
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Thursday, January 04, 2018

Morning by Morning, January 4 - Open Heavens and Visions of God by the Hand of the Lord
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I enter Your gates with thanksgiving and Your courts with praise, as I begin my day centered in You--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God.  ...
 
"In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.... the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was on him there" (Ezekiel 1:1-3).
 
Ezekiel lived under the Old Covenant, in troubled times, in a distant land. Yet You opened the heavens that he could see visions of God and Your hand "was on him there"--"there" in that place of his journey, "there" in that season of his life, "there" at a time when he and his people desperately needed the hope and encouragement and guidance of their God.
 
We live under a "New Covenant" (Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 9:15). It's a New Covenant, fulfilled and sealed by the blood of Christ for all who put their hope and trust in You (Luke 22:20). Your New Covenant with us is "a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises" (Hebrews 8:6). And under this New Covenant You put Your laws in our minds and write them on our hearts, as You lead us and empower us, abiding with us by Your Holy Spirit, to "know the Lord" in increasingly intimate and personal relationship (Hebrews 8:8-12 fulfilling Jeremiah 31:31-34).
 
Under Your New Covenant with us, with Your Spirit abiding within us every moment of every day, Your hand is always upon us, Your heavens are always open over us, and You're always opening the eyes of our hearts to see visions of God (Romans 8:9). Every moment, we have the opportunity to live into the answer and fulfillment of the prayers of the Apostle Paul for all who believe, as he passionately prayed "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give (us) a spirit of wisdom and revelation as (we) come to know Him, so that, with the eyes of (our) heart enlightened, (we) may know what is the hope to which He has called (us), what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among (us) the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe, according to the working of His great power" (Ephesians 1:17-19).
 
Like Ezekiel--but even more so, since we are under a better covenant with even better promises--let Your hand be upon us, let Your heavens be open over us, and let us see visions of God that we may see what You're doing, hear what You're saying, and walk in the ways that lead to life in You each day. We are a people living in troubled times, in a distant land far from our citizenship in heaven, who desperately need Your hope, Your encouragement, and Your guidance each day. And You're our loving and ever-present God, so willing to do just that, as we press in and press on with our spiritual journey to know You more personally and intimately each day. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays




Friend, I pray you powerfully experience the Lord's open heavens over you with His Holy Spirit within you, giving you His encouragement, hope, and guidance each day on your journey with Him, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friend!
  


Friends, I welcome you to join with me in a daily journey of prayer with me through my 365 Day Prayer Devotional, Morning by Morning, Second Edition, for a deeply intimate and personal journey of prayer each day.


 

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

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Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Morning by Morning, January 3 - The New Covenant for a Happy New Year!
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are the King of kings and Lord of lords. Be King and Lord of my life and every moment of my day.  ...
 
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:  I will put My law in within them, and I will write it on their hears; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
 
As we begin this New Year, I'm thinking of how You began a New Covenant with me. This New Covenant is not about the "dos" and the "don'ts" of the laws and the rules trying to be good enough to be loved and accepted by You. No, it's about recognizing and admitting that I can't do all that I wish I could do that would make me and my life better; and I can't not do all that I wish I could not do that would make me and my life better. It's about turning to You in deep humility and desperate dependence to recognize and admit that apart from You, I can do nothing (John 15:5). Even our most "righteous deeds" are "nothing but filthy rags" apart from You and Your grace at work within us (Isaiah 64:6 NLT).
 
Under this New Covenant, I never have to be apart from You, for Your Spirit is within me--writing Your law on my heart and empowering me to walk in Your ways by Your Spirit. By the power of Your grace, "(I'm) not in in the flesh; (I'm) in the Spirit; since the Spirit of God dwells in (me)" (Romans 8:9). And in the Spirit, You've set me free to live a "New Covenant" in Christ (Hebrews 9:15). I don't have to try harder to try to live up to the "dos" and the "don'ts" of some standard or goal I can never attain in my own power by my own will. Instead, I'm free! I'm free to "rest" in the work of the One who abides in me to will what is right and to do what is right (Hebrews 4:1-11). "For God is working in (me)," as I'm resting in Him, "giving (me) the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13 NLT).
 
So as I enter this New Year, embracing the grace of Your New Covenant--resting from my own labors and wisdom to live each day trusting in Your power and guidance--I'm excited to see all You have for me; and I'm excited to give all I have and all I am to You! "That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.' ... And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so that we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us!" (1 Corinthians 2:9-12)  So by the power of the grace of God, I freely, gratefully embrace the New Covenant and the Happy New Year You have for me and all who love You! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays




Friend, I pray you will live in the freedom and grace of God's New Covenant for you in Christ, will all His abundant blessing and favor for you the year, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you and Happy New Year, my friend!
  
   

Friends, please come join us for our Evening of Worship for the New Year, where I will be joining others to lead in prayers for the New Year at Oak Hills Church, Crownridge Campus in San Antonio, tonight at 7PM in the West Sanctuary. All are welcome! God bless you and Happy New Year!


Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

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